More detail on this person: Colonel Robert
(Bob) Arnau sadly passed away on February 24,
2015 at Riverside Community Hospital. He was 81.
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site:
03/11/2023
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Colonel Arnau was the former Riverside County
General Services Agency Director who oversaw the
construction of numerous buildings that are still
in use today. His direction helped reshape
downtown Riverside.
Bob Arnau was born on June 3, 1933 in Hollywood,
Florida to Julian and Leona Arnau. He was his high
school class president and became the first person
in his family to attend college, earning a full
scholarship to the University of Miami (Fla). He
graduated from the "U" with a Civil Engineering
degree in 1955. After completing ROTC, he entered
the US Air Force and earned his pilot wings in
1956 at Webb Air Force Base, Texas. Bob married
Mary Angela Mascaro in 1963 in Lubbock, Texas
and they spent the next 52 years traveling the
world together, very much in love.
Colonel Arnau served 29 years in the Air Force as
a pilot, engineer and commander. He was a highly
decorated Vietnam Veteran helicopter pilot,
receiving multiple medals of valor earned in
combat, including three distinguished flying
crosses. Colonel Arnau honorably retired from the
Air Force at March Air Force Base in 1984 and
went to work for Riverside County as the Director
of the General Services Agency. During his ten
year service, he supervised the construction of
the Riverside Hall of Justice, the Robert Presley
Detention Facility, the Health and Welfare
Administrative Center, the Victor Miceli Law
Library addition, multiple sheriff stations and
numerous other buildings. He retired from
Riverside County in 1993 and taught at the UC
Riverside Adult Extension Program for several
years.
Bob enjoyed his retirement years traveling with
Mary, continuing his association with numerous
organizations such as the Order of Daedalians and
the Military Officers Association and proudly
enjoying his very close family and many, many
friends.
Colonel Arnau is survived by his wife Mary; his
two sons Robert and John; his daughter Michelle;
and his two grandchildren
Olivia and Jake.
Memorial services will be held at 11am on
Thursday, March 12th at the Riverside National
Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, his
family is requesting donations be made to the City
of Hope Cancer Center (1500 E. Duarte Rd, Duarte,
CA).
Bob was a hero, a patriot, a loving husband,
father and poppop. He was a true officer and a
gentleman. He will be dearly
missed.
This one strikes particularly hard to me. I flew
several missions with, then, Maj. Arnau, in 69-70
while with the 21st SOS. He was my pilot and
aircraft commander on one particular mission on 18
Nov. 1969 (a "Prairie Fire" emergency extraction)
that earned him, our co-pilot, Jerry Kibby, flight
engineer/gunner Charles Hall and myself as a
flight engineer/gunner the Distinguish Flying
Cross.
From: Jim Burns
Thoughts on Returning from War
By Colonel Robert R. Arnau (Major Arnau at time of
writing)
2/28/70
I have finished fighting my first war. God knows I
hope it is also my last. Unfortunately, the war
continues at full pitch, unabated. There is no
avoiding the cliché - war is indeed hell! I find
my capability as a writer totally inadequate to
describe the personal emotions of one involved.
Needless to say they are deep, strong, sometimes
nearly overwhelming. The constant presence of fear
is a terrible thing, yet it is there every day in
varying degrees for each man participating. For
some, the fear is continually enormous. For others
it is undulating, sometimes great, sometimes
nearly absent. It is axiomatic that bravery
acknowledges the presence of fear. Without the
latter, the former cannot exist. Consequently,
bravery must be judged in terms of the fear
overcome. A routine act by one may well be heroic
by another. The threshold of fear, that point
where fear becomes truly significant, varies
greatly between individuals. Strangely, this
threshold sometimes appears to vary within the
individual. One day he is fearless - the next
obsessed with the presence of danger.
The true test of bravery then is the completion of
the mission in the presence of fear. This I have
seen daily, continually in my war. Men
accomplishing assigned tasks in the presence of
gut rendering fear. What is this fear? Of injury?
No. It is a fear of cessation of existence. The
fear of not returning to one's family. The fear of
not being permitted to fulfill one's normal
lifespan. This is an awesome thing yet surely is
as old as war itself.
In my peculiar war, where one is allotted a
specified time span of duty, the fear seems to
grow as one nears the goal of a completed tour.